Should I Create a Newsletter?
(4 min read)

The short answer is YES, as soon as you're able! The trick is, don't get hung up on perfection before you start. It's so easy to get absolutely stuck in your head and held by perfectionism or fear. 

Why Would I Want a Newsletter?
To share your thoughts. To connect with your audience or clients. To become trusted. To develop a base to "sell" your business.

How Do I Create a Newsletter?
The first step will be to choose what service you'll use to send or distribute your newsletter. That service may have templates within it to create your newsletter. 

If you don't care for the templates the delivery service provides, you can head to Canva to create your newsletter and paste it into your delivery service. I'd recommend downloading at least a jpg/png of the cover page to post in the email that will be sent to encourage folks to open the newsletter as you may have to share this newsletter as a clickable pdf.

Where Do I Create a Newsletter?
There are a number of services available, many very affordable for a freelancer or solo business. Here is one comparison review courtesy of Mailtrap. It's also not difficult to change providers if you realize you don't care for whichever platform you select. 

• LinkedIn - yes, the business networking social platform, does offer a newsletter option! It's by no means fancy. The format and style is very basic but it gets the point across. Your first newsletter will be shared with every one of your contacts! That's a huge start! I've seen it suggested you hold on a newsletter until you have at least 1,000 contacts. After the first edition, contacts are invited to officially subscribe to continue to receive notification of your news which will also drop into their home email. LinkedIn helpfully sends an automatic message to any new contacts offering the option to subscribe to your newsletter. This is pretty handy to maximize your reach! The trick is it's on what many call "rented land" - the emails LinkedIn sends to are proprietary and will not be shared with you. You're unable to export or download a contact list of subscribers. 
• Mailtrap - this offers current industry standard number of emails you can send for free at 1,000, but the contact list limit is the smallest on their free plan (100 contacts). Their paid version is slightly higher monthly than MailChimp.
• MailChimp - you can send up to 1,000 emails/month to up to 500 contacts. I've used this service for years with many organizations and highly recommend it. The templates, even on the free version, look nice and are easy to adapt.
• MailerLite - I've been hearing more buzz about this one as a strong alternative to MailChimp. The number of emails and contacts are the same but the price is slightly less if you grow beyond the free version.
• Brevo - the free option is very decent with up to 300 emails daily up to 500 contacts. Their pricing plans appear a bit less than MailChimp and Mailtrap. They have comparison pages focused on their top competitors that are very handy.
• Constant Contact - there is no free option on this service. Its first paid tier is in line with the paid versions noted above but there are a number of additional features available. If you're looking for more than a template-based delivery service, this is a known brand. 

How Often Should I Post a Newsletter?
As often as you feel comfortably able, but do your best to be consistent in posting. Consider starting at one level and work your way to more frequent from there.

• Monthly is a great place to start and roughly average for email newsletters. 
• Weekly may feel a bit aggressive to start but a goal for most. You may consider starting monthly, develop the habit, and work your way to weekly.
• Multiple times per week takes some dedication to commit to.
• Quarterly is generally considered a minimum, otherwise, why bother?

What Do I Share in a Newsletter?

• Share your news.
• Share your business.
• Share snippets of your blog posts and direct traffic to your website for full details!
• Share behind-the-scenes insight into your business and your life. This is an opportunity to build relationships with your audience. People want to get to know you.
• Share sneak-peeks of upcoming events or opportunities! Your email group should be the first to receive special news!
• Share stories of impact of your business or offerings.
• Share a "call to action" (CTA). What do you want readers to do?
  • Reply to the newsletter - this helps email servers realize you're not spam and are wanted in inboxes. Maybe ask a question you genuinely have. Maybe its an opportunity to survey your audience/customers. Some folks even "gamify" portions of newsletters to get a "click" or response!
  • Contact you for something, maybe to request your services or assistance.
  • Maybe you sell items in your business - share what you're selling, especially if you have new items or a sale! Special "newsletter only" opportunities are great!

How Do I Get Sign-ups?
This is the million dollar question. It takes Time and work to increase your contact list. Patience is key.

• Start with friends and family - they're most likely willing to encourage you and help give you a start. Encourage them to share the news with others who will then signup directly for your news!
• Have a website? Make sure you have a Subscribe option to gather names and emails! This should be on multiple pages on your website and at the top or as a pop-up. 
• Promote your newsletter wherever you go - on socials, when networking - anywhere and everywhere!
• Consider posting a portion of your full newsletter on LinkedIn to hook folks, but they need to head to your website to provide their email to get the full newsletter. 
• Create a "cookie" or give-away to encourage folks to subscribe to your newsletter. One-page quizzes or information pdfs are great for this!

That's a lot of territory covered! I'm hopeful it helps you decide whether a newsletter is right for you. 

If you'd like someone to simply work through newsletter plans and chat strategy, I'd be thrilled to chat! Let's Chat by email or find me on LinkedIn and message me. 

If you decide you'd like to create a newsletter but need someone to create one for you with your material or at least get you started designing a template for you to simply update, Let's Chat! 

Hone Your Craft
(2 min read)

Quentin Tarantino is apparently often quoted as saying, "When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them 'No, I went to films.'"

There are many ways to prepare yourself for life's adventures, including starting your own business:
* Rigorous formalized education
* Life lessons
* Immersing oneself into a passion
* Jumping in to Just Do It!

Overthinking
Unfortunately, we're often our own worst enemies. Self-sabotage is real and often completely unintentional, but there nonetheless. Structured education programs—college, trade school, certificate programs—aren't for everyone. Apprenticeships are common in trade schools and were more the norm years ago. These days, if you're not in a business where apprenticeships happen, you can more often find mentoring relationships to guide you.

​Sometimes jumping in and figuring things out as you go is the best way forward. As Nike says—Just Do It!

Develop a Plan
Any BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal - thank you, Jim Collins) needs broken down into steps.

As you're creating or developing your business or next big pitch, start with some brainstorming - throw all the ideas out there so you can begin gathering like ideas together. You may head for old-fashioned pen and paper, sticky notes, maybe Trello or Asana style cards work as digital sticky notes, or you're into mind mapping. 

Next step—gather like ideas together and prioritize. Which steps are needed first?

Research is likely a key step early in your process—before or just after your brainstorming. This is where Tarantino's philosophy comes into play. Sometimes the research IS your education or training. What do you need to research and how deeply? Just don't get lost in the education phase.

It's OK to Be Messy
Planning may be lovely, but sometimes you need to simply jump in and get dirty. Try some things as you go. Get into the thick of things. Figure your way out. That in itself is the education process.

In our house, we try to celebrate mistakes as noted in the film Meet the Robinsons. Every mistake is a learning opportunity as you Keep Moving Forward!

Let's Chat!
If you're looking for someone to chat strategy with, I'm here for you. Happy to be a sounding board or help you get out of your head (or your own way!). If you're looking for a partner to dig in and figure things out as we go, I'm with you! Shoot me an email or message on LinkedIn. 

But whatever you do - Just DO It!